CASTIGLIONE
Sicily.
In Catania province
ca. 7 km NW of Ragusa is a hill that was already inhabited during the Early Bronze Age. From the end of
the 7th c. to the beginning of the 5th c. B.C. it was occupied by a Sikel settlement and again during the 4th
and 3d c. B.C. On this hill some scholars would locate
the Greek site of Kasmenai, though positive evidence
cannot be adduced.
Excavation has brought to light a complex of rectangular rooms, some of which are aligned with a rocky street,
and three circular structures that may be silos. The pottery finds belong to the mid 5th, 4th, and 3d c. B.C. Some
stone tablets incised with magical signs, which can be
dated to the last centuries of the Empire, suggest the
presence of isolated groups of Christians, perhaps followers of heretical sects. The archaic necropolis, occupying the S and SW slopes of the plateau, consists of rock-cut cist and chamber tombs; some of the latter have
a central cavity with lateral benches. This cemetery has
yielded Sikel pottery mixed with Attic and Corinthian
vases that range in date from the end of the 7th to the
beginning of the 5th c. B.C. The finds are housed in the
Hyblaean Archaeological Museum of Ragusa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Di Vita, “Comiso, esplorazione parziale di una necropoli sicula del IV periodo siculo,”
NSc
(1951) 335ff; id., “Breve rassegna degli scavi archeologici condotti in provincia di Ragusa nel quadriennio
1955-59,”
BdA (1959); M. Margani Nicosia,
Casmene
ritrovata? (1955); R. U. Inglieri, “Casmene ritrovata,”
ArchCl 9 (1957) 223ff; P. Pelagatti & M. Del Campo,
“Abitati Siculi: Castiglione,”
SicArch (Dec. 1971).
M. DEL CAMPO
